There’s one thing about Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller that appears somewhat bit off.
He hardly ever says a lot. He’s typically seen strolling by himself to follow along with his helmet already on, eschewing the luxurious bus rides most of his teammates take from the locker room to the again follow discipline at Halas Hall. And his facial expressions usually vary from intense to ultra-intense.
Maybe these are all simply indications of how Fuller concentrates.
“He has like a Mamba mentality: not easily shaken, laser-focused,” fellow nook Prince Amukamara stated, referencing Kobe Bryant. “He’s just locked in every time. He’s always in the zone. When he gets beat, he shakes it off. There’s just something in his eyes where if you look at him, he’s ready to go.”
Fuller is having one other robust season to comply with up his all-pro displaying in 2018 and has two interceptions, 5 move breakups and 27 tackles. Last season, he led the league in picks (seven) and breakups (21), and his 17 profession interceptions put him fourth within the NFL since 2014.
His high play was a terrific interception in opposition to the Broncos wherein he stepped in entrance of the receiver on the good time to avoid wasting a landing, and almost had the Matrix-style athleticism to maintain his stability on the return, however his knee barely scraped the bottom. Nonetheless, it was one of many highlights of the season for the Bears.
He and Amukamara are an elite tandem, and that’s an unimaginable luxurious for the protection. They hardly ever, if ever, must double-team a receiver with these two on the sphere, and that frees up safeties Eddie Jackson and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to be aggressive playmakers.
Fuller is the quiet man among the many cornerbacks, the place the gregarious Amukamara and eclectic Buster Skrine at all times have a lot to say. Fuller might be probably the most tightlipped participant in your complete locker room, much more so than his buddy Khalil Mack.
He’s not the simplest participant to get to know, and when requested about how he’s carried out this season, probably the most he gave was, “Just playing what I see.” On his new defensive coordinator, Chuck Pagano, Fuller provided, “Good dude, good coach.”
He most popular to not talk about his interceptions, both, saying these are up to now and he’s trying forward.
For many of the Bears, one of the best ways to know Fuller is solely to look at him work.
“He’s a great pro,” Pagano stated. “I don’t suppose there’s anyone on our workforce — you understand, your complete workforce — that in all probability watches and research extra tape than Kyle. He involves work each single day.
“He’s not a person of many phrases, however he’s a wise man and he takes so much in. He listens so much, takes so much in. He asks nice questions. He is aware of soccer inside and outside.”
It’d be regular to interpret Fuller’s reserved persona as him being standoffish, however that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Amukamara, at all times prodding teammates in an effort to construct relationships, stated he loosened up over dinner within the metropolis. Skrine, who joined the workforce this 12 months, thinks Fuller treats it like every other office and is there solely to do his job.
But there are rumors, arduous as they’re to imagine, that Fuller sometimes chimes in with a humorous line on the sphere or in conferences.
“He cracks jokes every now and then, but I don’t know when the last time was,” Skrine stated. “It happened at least once, I think.”
At least they know what they’re going to get from him.
Fuller is likely one of the Bears’ most reliable gamers on the sphere and within the locker room. He’s the identical from play to play and week to week. He’s regular. And if staying quiet and critical is a part of what retains him at this stage, the Bears will take it.